1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a fluid ejecting apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system and method for supplying fluid within a fluid ejecting apparatus.
2. Related Art
One example of a fluid ejection apparatus currently known in the art is an ink jet printer which includes a recording head which is filled with an ink or a preservative solution during the manufacturing process, such as in the apparatuses described in JP-A-2002-283590 and JP-A-2004-114647, which are referred to as off-carriage printers.
In another configuration currently known in the art, the fluid ejecting apparatus is an ink jet printer wherein an ink container that contains ink is arranged separately from the recording head. One example of such a configuration is described in JP-A-2005-47258.
When an ink jet printer is manufactured with a recording head filled with ink, or the like, it may be necessary to refill the ink in the recording head after a number of printing processes have been performed. This is particularly true in instances where the printer is an off-carriage printer, because the amount of ink that is needed to flow from the ink container to the recording head is relatively large. When a printer is manufactured without an attached ink container, an additional member is needed to seal the area where the supply needle that supplies the ink from the ink container is required.
In addition, when the printer is manufactured without an attached ink container, the quality of ink in the recording head may possibly deteriorate because air may be allowed to enter the ink flow passage or the ink container.
These problems not only apply to ink jet printers including ink containers that contain liquid ink and recording head that discharges liquid ink, but also apply to all fluid ejecting apparatuses that include a fluid containing portion that contains fluid and a fluid discharge portion that discharges fluid.